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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27718135">fourth time's the charm</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/balimaria/pseuds/balimaria'>balimaria</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bali's Dream SMP Fics [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alexis | Quackity-centric, Gen, Minor Violence, Resurrection, Villain Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), WOOT WOOT HERE COMES THE PREDICTION TRAIN</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:15:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>852</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27718135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/balimaria/pseuds/balimaria</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A crack of lightning splits the sky in two. Rain hammers a beat onto the warped and dirty windows. The moon is hidden by a thick blanket of clouds.</p><p>Everything is perfect.</p><p>----</p><p>AKA: Frankenschlatt? I'll take ten.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alexis | Quackity &amp; Jschlatt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bali's Dream SMP Fics [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>118</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>fourth time's the charm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A crack of lightning splits the sky in two. Rain hammers a beat onto the warped and dirty windows. The moon is hidden by a thick blanket of clouds.</p><p>Everything is perfect.</p><p>Quackity works with only the torchlight for company. He’s spent so many weeks on this - conceiving it, creating it, perfecting it. Finally, finally, the hour was upon him.</p><p>Another shock of lightning crackles through the ashen sky. His world seems to pause with its brief illumination, everything he’s worked for captured in one blinding frame of light. Messes of redstone wiring and hundreds of flashing switches and levers and buttons and <i>in the center of it all-</i></p><p>One man on an operating table.</p><p>Quackity’s hands are slick with blood. It’d taken him a while to get Schlatt fixed up. The damage his body had received during the explosion and subsequent burial had been… significant. But it was nothing a bit of improvised surgery couldn’t fix. Admittedly, the horned man wasn’t exactly the peak of beauty, but…</p><p>He’d make do. They’d make do.</p><p>Quackity brushes a hand through Schlatt’s hair (it's tangled and dirty, but they could fix that later.) Thick stitching runs a ragged line across his face, curving down his neck and, beneath the frayed suit, the rest of his body. Quackity tugs on it with a fingernail. It gives a little.</p><p>(It’s fine. They can fix it later.)</p><p>Thunder claps, reminding Quackity of his objective. With no further delays, he begins to work. Plugs and switches and lines of code all fall into place. He runs a test - everything works without a stutter.</p><p>Quackity grins, teeth shining in the torchlight. He presses one final button, feeling the floor rumble as a lighting pole is extended into the sky. He laughs, not caring if he sounds mad. It was <i>working.</i> It was actually working.</p><p>Everything lights up as a bolt of lightning strikes the pole. Then another. Then another. Quackity smells smoke but he doesn’t care. All that was left to do was pull one final lever and he’d be <i>fixed-</i></p><p>Something slams into the door, blowing it off its hinges. There’s a figure, its form too shadowed for Quackity to make out.</p><p>“...Big Q? What are you doing?”</p><p>Tubbo’s voice doesn’t quite fit the question. Too soft and yet not at the same time. That was fine, though. In the end, Quackity only has one thing left to do.</p><p>“Is that… is that Schlatt?”</p><p>He laughs at the fear underscoring Tubbo’s voice.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Quackity reaches for the lever and he can hear Tubbo screaming and running and there are hands pulling him back but <i>he pulls it down-</i></p><p>Everything goes white.</p><p>====</p><p>
  <i>The code stutters.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>This has never happened before. Three deaths - that was supposed to be it. Game over. But it can feel a mutation forming. A knife of blinding white is cutting and pasting its binary, messily crafting it into what it wanted to read. Something else is removed entirely. It barely feels the difference - just a few ones and zeros in the infinite cascade, and yet-</i>
</p><p>
  <i>And yet-</i>
</p><p>
  <i>And yet-</i>
</p><p>====</p><p>Quackity forces himself back into awareness. The moon is shining through the window, bathing the soot-streaked room in a milky light. Something moves in the shadows.</p><p>He looks to his left. Tubbo is still unconscious.</p><p>“...Schlatt?”</p><p>There's a pained, raspy keen coming from the table, just barely audible over the last remnants of the storm.</p><p>Quackity stands with a grin, approaching the table. Cautiously, he reaches out a hand…</p><p>Two eyes like golden coins snap open. Something cold wraps around Quackity’s wrist, pulling him closer.</p><p>
  <i>“Alex.”</i>
</p><p>It’s so quiet he wonders if he imagined the voice. But no. No, those eyes were unforgettable.</p><p>Quackity backs away. From the table, something strains and snaps - the bindings on Schlatt’s limbs, he realizes.</p><p>In both fear and awe, Quackity watches as the man he brought back to life steps into the moonlight.</p><p>Though his suit is burned and skin torn and bloody, Schlatt laughs. Quackity almost cries at the familiarity. </p><p>“You crazy bastard,” Schlatt whispers, flexing his fingers experimentally. “You actually did it.”</p><p>Then Schlatt looks at him, a wild kind of fire dancing in his eyes.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>Something slams into Quackity’s head, sending his body ablaze. Through the ringing in his ears he can hear shouting and struggling and someone screaming in fear-</p><p>Then two cold, clammy hands are pulling him to his feet. Tubbo is on the floor again, blood pooling around his leg. And Schlatt?</p><p>Schlatt has Quackity’s shoulder in his hands, grinning through broken teeth. Through the haze of what was likely a concussion, he can hear the man talking. Something about repayment and a debt to be paid.</p><p>Something about the two of them against the world.</p><p>A crack of lightning splits the sky in two. In the brief frame of illumination, his world seems to pause.</p><p>He sees fire. He sees blood. He sees arrows buried in scorched earth and broken swords lying scattered amongst the ruin.</p><p>He sees a flag of orange and black flying above it all.</p><p>Everything is perfect.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Join the MCYT discord!</p><p>PERMANANT LINK: https://discord.gg/nj5qfunhz6</p></blockquote></div></div>
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